Nahdet el Mahrousa, a focus on the supporter of social enterprises [Report]

Read In

Download Report

Aramexhas
published a report, in collaboration with Wamda and the American
University in Cairo (AUC), onNahdet El Mahrousa(NM), an Egypt-based incubator for early stage innovative
social enterprises in the Middle East. NM focuses on young people
that are in the early stages of their startups. The report focuses
on how NM developed the reasoning behind its hybrid model and the
impact of its work.

Ten years ago,
Ehaab Abdoubegan going through his contacts
looking for people that, like him, believed that the Egyptian
market was stagnant and did not offer enough opportunities for
young entrepreneurs. Through the ensuing discussions, they realized
they have a number of common problems. Addressing social issues was
ineffective and inefficient, development practices were outdated
and management was dominated by established mature individuals who
didn't offer opportunities to younger professionals. But chief
among the issues was the general lack of innovation in the country.
So, Abdou and those who shared his ideals founded NM with the goal
of engaging and activating the Egyptian youth.

The NM founders looked for social enterprises -
revenue-generating, economically viable ventures that are able to
deliver against financial as well as quantifiable social and/or
environmental performance targets, often referred to as the triple
bottom line. The NP team believed that young professionals were the
thinkers and drivers for progressive social change and offering
proper mechanisms for expressing their thoughts allows ideas to
flourish into tangible things.

The NM team’s model involves providing
individuals support in the form of capacity building, technical
assistance, access to networks, and funding to help develop
successful, scalable enterprises. NM developed a set of criteria to
identify such social enterprises, based on four ideas: addressing
root causes, innovations in development, sustainability,
scalability. It then developed a model that they would apply to the
social enterprises that they would work with (see report for basic
outline).

The NM team believed that there wasn’t a
shortage of young people with ideas, they simply did not have the
motivation to become social entrepreneurs. To help them in their
endeavors, NM lowers the risks involved in social enterprises. They
offer financial resources to help these entrepreneurs, gives them
access to community of like-minded individuals to help them and
support them in times of frustration, and helps them when they make
mistakes. The report cites research by the US National Business
Incubation that states that 80 percent of incubated companies
survive their first three years of operation, in comparison to just
35 percent of non-incubated firms.

It seems that NM’s theory holds some truth as
they have shown some substantial growth in the sector. Since 2003,
over 40 social enterprises have been incubated, which currently
reach and impact over 10,000 individuals in Egypt annually. NM's
network grew from a few individuals in 2003 to over 8,000 in 2012.
NM also has a membership base which has a very selective process.
It only accepts committed individuals that NM believes will provide
value to its various social enterprises. As of 2012, the total
membership has increased to more than 300.

In its early days, NM had limited funding and
resources. Throughout the years it has managed to ensure partners
and donors to have financial stability. It has developed a number
of creative partnership models. It has partnered with Yahoo!
Maktoob in an online campaign called “Social Innovation Starts with
YOU!” As well as the International Youth Foundation and USAID,
forming the Egyptian Education and Employment Alliance (EEEA). It
partnered again with the International Youth Foundation, and with
the MasterCard Foundation, to manage the Egypt@Work
program.

To download the report, please scroll up and
click on the link in the gray box.